News & Updates

Mike Novogratz, a Wall Street trader and one of bitcoin’s most outspoken champions has acquired the Canadian crypoto startup First Coin Capital, a startup founded by Dutchman Marc van der Chijs. The acquisition is a part of Novogratz broader ambition with his newly launched merchant bank Galaxy Digital. Financials details about the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Customers start trial against Koinz Trading

The customers Koinz Trading have started a trial against the company. The people behind the lawsuit claim that Koinz Trading is a scam. The main argument: Barry van Mourik, the founder of the company, raised the money to mine bitcoins, but so fare, customers haven’t seen any bitcoins. Mourik on his part mentions server problems to, being scammed himself and having to undergo immediate eye-surgeries as reasons for the delay (in Dutch).

Dutch startup Picoo gets noticed at CES

Picoo, a no-screen handheld device that aims to merge interactive technology with ‘old-school’ outdoor games got noticed at CES. The startup from Eindhoven was chosen ‘Best of CES 2018 by PC Pro.

Funding

Amsterdam-based startup DFFRNT Media has raised funding in return for a minority stake investment from Talpa Network and TCC Global. Founders of the startup include celebrity entrepreneur and TV host Winston Gerschtanowitz.

Blockport raises €1 million in under 3 minutes

Startup ‘Blockport’ has raised €1 million during the pre-sale of their token exchange on January 3. The startup that aims to launch a social crypto-exchange based on a hybrid-decentralised architecture, raised the capital in less than three minutes.

SEO startup ContentKing raises €350K

ContentKing, an Amsterdam-based startup that supports its clients to get the most out of SEO has raised €350.000 from a group of informal investors. The investors get a 10 percent stake in the company in return.

Monday Read

Who is your competition?

Most people mention another brand, product or service. But are they really your biggest competitors? In fact they are not. You’re biggest competitor is non-consumption. In this HBR article Tara-Nicholle Nelson proposes another framework. Instead of asking who your competition is, you should be asking what your competition is. The problem of focusing on your rivals is that you lose sight of your customer. Nelson: “Focusing on competitive products and companies often leads to “me-too” products, which purport to compete with or iterate on something that customers might not have liked much in the first place.”

Why is health care so damn expensive?

Indeed. If there is anything we should invest our time, effort and energy into is solving these world problems. So why is health care indeed so… expensive. This Techcrunch article takes a shot on answering it. It starts off excellently: “Never has there been more talk of innovation and yet more disappointment in the future than in the health care industry.”…

Entrepreneur | Co-founder @StartupsAnoniem, @StartupJuncture | Partner @StartupDelta | Node1| Tech Blogger| Samir is interested in and loves to work with crazy, dissident, rebel startups that challenge the status quo to make things better. Drop him a line at samir[at]startupjuncture[.]com